


Ties That Bind Us

by 3rdgenderfromthesun



Series: Venom Series [2]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Anal Sex, Carnage - Freeform, Fluff and Angst, Goo-bies, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, Multi, Parent-Child Relationship, Polyamory Negotiations, Tentacle Sex, baby symbiotes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 09:20:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 11,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19664449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/3rdgenderfromthesun/pseuds/3rdgenderfromthesun
Summary: Brock and Venom have been violated, Venom's seeds ripped from his form by a mad scientist who seeks to use them for nefarious purposes. Weakened, he seeks help to save his stollen offspring, but they have vanished without a trace. Venom and Eddie lean on Dan and Anne for support while they search for their children. Meanwhile Spiderman suspects that murders occurring around town are a broken-hearted Venom lashing out at the city. Just as things feel their most hopeless the children manage to reach out telepathically to their sire. Spiderman joins the rescue and finds that he had never seen true Carnage until that moment.





	1. Chapter 1

Tony wasn't the sort to get hung up on symbolism and signs from the great beyond, but his door being banged on in the middle of the night during a raging thunder storm right after watching a scary movie with Steve sure felt prophetic. Now one would think that two super heroes could open a door without daring each other, but as it happened the security system was also down and Tony wasn't a fucking idiot. He knew a trap when he saw one, and Steve's jokes about Scooby Doo were not helpful... but his imitations were adorable and Tony was going to make him do that again later for Bruce.

“Just open the door,” Steve laughed at last.

“You open the door.”

The banging got louder and a vicious, roaring voice demanded entrance, “ **OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR!** ”

“Wait, I know that deeply terrifying voice,” Tony announced while Steve gave the door a horrified look.

“Uh, Tone?” Steve hesitated while Tony hurried forward and opened the door.

The lightning lit up the sky like daytime, thunder roared, sharp white teeth flashed in the brightened night and Tony took a step back to welcome in the shimmering black demon. Venom stepped into their living room, looking ominous and deadly and... well... threatening was really his only look. Tony swallowed convulsively because showing fear outwardly wasn't an option. Venom was a bit touchy about that.

“Hey there, Venom, how's the missus?” Tony quipped.

Instead of answering Venom let out a mournful noise, both hands going to his head as if in pain, and the creature melted into the skin of the 'missus' to form a black t-shirt and pants. Eddie Brock stood before them, with his face twisted in misery as he looked at them both and opened and shut his mouth a few times as if he were surprised to see them.

“Did he bring you here without you knowing?” Steve asked, apparently taking the expression the same way.

Eddie shook his head and then took in a shuddering breath and let it out slowly, “Don't... freak out.”

“Who did you kill?” Tony demanded, anger immediately coming to the surface.

“Trust me, I wish I had killed them, but-”

“What did you DO?!” Steve demanded, putting on his 'Captain America' voice.

“Hey, don't yell at us, man,” Brock's voice cracked and he blinked back tears, “We were just raped!”


	2. Chapter 2

Tony let Natalia in and gestured towards his living room where Eddie Brock and his alien husband sat beneath an orange blanket from an emergency kit he'd dug out from under the kitchen sink. Natalia gave them a confused look as she stripped off the kind of double breasted trench coat that belonged in noir movies. It had a matching hat. All black and painfully sexy. Tony checked with Steve to see if he were seeing the porn movie starting point, but he was frowning sadly at Brock, the boyscout.

“Why is he wearing a shock blanket?” Natalia asked Steve since Tony had been staring at him pointedly.

“Tony says it's what you do for rape victims,” Steve looked saddened.

Natalia turned inquiring eyes to Tony who folded his arms and tried to look wise, “I saw it in a movie.”

Natalia didn't flat out _call_ them idiots, but her gaze heavily implied it. She walked passed them on clicking heels- what the hell had he interrupted?- and sat down on the $4000 French coffee table in front of where Brock sat rubbing his hands together and looking tortured. It was a pretty constant look on him so if his words hadn't been so shocking Tony wouldn't have been surprised at the sight. The guy always looked like someone had just told him his grandma had had a heart attack. It's how one looked after years of reporting the news.

“Eddie. Venom.” Natalia acknowledged.

“Hey, Nat,” Eddie glanced up at her, “You going to help me?”

“Sure,” She replied easily, “Do you need a doctor?”

“No, Venom healed everything.”

“Of course,” Natalia nodded and glanced towards the men. Tony gestured at Brock dramatically and she looked back at him calmly, “Tell me who did this so we can kill them.”

“Uh, we don't kill,” Tony pointed out.

“He's right,” Steve agreed.

Natalia's eyes flashed towards them, “If you didn't want them killed why did you call _me.”_

“The guy was raped,” Tony gestured between them, “I figured you were the best person to call!”

“Because I'm a woman?” She clarified angrily.

“Because you're a femme fatale and probably received training to do all sorts of sordid things that would warp anyone's mind and therefore could help him through the psychological results of his assault temporarily until we could resolve the immediate issue and then get him into proper therapy,” Steve cut in to stop them from arguing.

Natalia nodded in understanding and turned back towards Brock, but now she looked uncomfortable.

“You... are... not to blame,” She tried, speaking the second part quickly, “None of this is your fault.”

“Oh boy,” Tony sighed.

“Stop,” Steve scolded him.

“I appreciate where you're going with this,” Brock replied with a weak smile, “But I just want to get my kids back.”

“Your kids?” Steve asked with concern.

“There are _more_?” Tony's voice contained restrained fear.

“They took them,” Brock's full bottom lip trembled, “They came into our hotel in the middle of the night and started electrocuting us, and they _didn't stop_ until they pulled all of V's seed from him.”

“Is he talking about-” Tony started.

“Don't say prostate stimulation, I swear Tony, I will leave you,” Steve hissed, “This is not a time for jokes!”

“It's always a time for jokes,” Tony argued, but Natalia had taken Brock's hand with a very serious expression on her face.

“Please explain,” She replied, “I know this is hard, but we don't know Venom's biology like you do.”

“Venom's like a woman in some ways,” He replied, “He's only got so many times he can reproduce, all at set times in his life when his form is ready. It's based on enough food availability but also time from the last seed drop. We weren't expecting to have another kid for at least an Earth year. Venom's seeds are contained within his DNA, and they don't touch mine. They're not meant to bond with the hosts since the host might be temporary; not until it's nearly time to drop and only if the parent wills it. So the little ones they took from us don't contain my DNA. They didn't have time to... ferment? Whatever. The point is, the babies can't survive in our atmosphere without a host. They took them, but they can't _survive alone,_ which means that even if they can get their bearings and an advantage they can't escape on their own.”

“And rescuing them would require hosts,” Natalia realized, “How many hosts?”

“If we can get them to fuse into one they can use just one, but we don't know them. We don't know their personalities or their fears. They might not know how to bond into one and then they'd need four hosts.”

“Four,” Natalia breathed, “That could be difficult to bring on a rescue mission. Obviously we know three who are able to contain symbiotes safely, but four?”

“We can't exactly bring Pepper into a hostile situation,” Tony pointed out, “And I'm doubting you want Anne in one, either.”

“No, Anne and Dan can't know about this,” Brock insisted suddenly, eyes widening, “Anne will want to take them to court and you don't take people like them to court. Dan will want to fix me, but just- We can't tell them.”

“Who exactly _are_ we going after?” Steve asked cautiously.

“They call themselves _The Jury_ ,” Brock replied, “But this isn't justice. They're just _children_. They can be good. V and I were gonna raise them to be good.”

“Your good and our good has been known to be different in the past,” Steve replied gently.

“They're experimenting on innocent people,” Brock insisted, “How could that be any kind of good?”

“I wouldn't exactly call you innocent,” Tony shook his head, “But your offspring haven't done anything. Yet.”

  
“I wasn't the only one there.”


	3. Chapter 3

“The Jury is a cult bordering on vigilante group,” Eddie explained as the van rattled down the road, “I've been investigating them for a while. They freaked out when I killed a guard on the way out of The Vault two years ago. They insist he was innocent, which I don't believe because Venom tells me the plan was to make sure only corrupt guards were on duty.”

Silence.

Tony raised an eyebrow.

**V: They were tasty. I'm hungry.**

“Anyway,” Eddie continued, “They haven't done anything illegal _yet._ Spider Man here ran into them once, right?”

“They were putting surveillance equipment all over the city last time I visited here. They kicked my butt all over the place, but then they ran out of money,” Peter snickered.

“Yeah, that happens when someone convinces every bank in the area to rescind your loans,” Tony muttered.

“Hm?” Steve asked.

“Nothing,” Tony shrugged.

“I used their abandoned equipment to create a crime tracking security web which I patched through to Mr. Brock after I went home,” Peter continued.

“And I've been using it to track their movements now that they've gone low tech. They've mostly been going after _actual_ bad guys, picking off the scraps V and I don't get to. No biggie. I was ready to play nice. Then we bumped into each other a week ago. I showed up to a bank robbery in progress to stop it and they were there trying to put the breaks on it as well. They decided they were due a cut of the profits since they helped cage the baddies. We didn't like that plan so we made them into marionettes and let the police handle them.”

“Well, better than biting their heads off,” Steve muttered.

“Yeah, we reserve that for violent offenders,” Eddie replied, eyes flickering to white.

“Takes one to know one, I guess,” Peter muttered.

Everyone turned to give Peter a surprised look.

“What?” He asked, eyes wide with innocence.

“Are you sure you're going to be okay doing this?” Tony asked anxiously, “Four symbiotes in one body. Four voices in your head. That's enough to drive anyone insane.”

A deep chuckle had them all jumping.

“ **You forget,”** Venom's voice issued from Eddie's mouth along with a glimpse of tongue, **“He was compatible for a reason. Don't think that he is innocent. Eventually he will have to make the same choice that I did. Will you lock him up as you did us? Or embrace his dark side?”**

“Look, I know that your daddy didn't love you enough or something, but Peter is different,” Tony snapped irritably.

“We all have a dark side,” Steve stated, surprising even Tony, “What matters is how we handle it.”

“How...” Tony gave Steve a wide eyed look, “How do you handle your dark side?”

Steve gave him a tired sigh but Tony leaned forward eagerly, metallic suit clinking, and continued, “ _Is there leather_? I need to know if there's _leather_.”

“I need to not hear this conversation,” Natalia grimaced.

“We did that,” Brock indicated himself, “We got them together.”

“Congrats,” Bruce huffed.

“100% my OTP,” Brock grinned eagerly, “Totally ship them.”

“How are you a vicious monster again?” Natalia asked with a fond smile.

Eddie replied with a toothsome smile, “ **He is a pussy without me.”**

“He-” Natalia started, and then went still, “We're here.”

Jokes were dropped. Masks were donned. Venom slid over Eddie's skin like a liquid blanket of vengeance and hurt. Eddie could feel his beloved's pain and sorrow, the violation of their substance when their seeds were taken, and the simmering anger that was boiling to a head. Before plans could be enacted Venom flowed out of the van in a swarm of many-limbed rage.

Iron Man shouted after them, Captain America leaped to follow in an attempt to protect his friends from themselves, and Natalia vanished from Venom's senses as her skills took command of her body. All this Venom was aware of, despite their ringing battle cry. The abandoned indoor pool where they'd set up shop and had assaulted Eddie and Venom just six hours prior wasn't overly large, so charging it blindly should have resulted in the deaths of at least a _few_ of the people within.

If there had been any.

Venom stood monstrous in the middle of the empty building, the smell of chlorine still overpowering the newer ones of the experiments they'd been conducting. Natalia had reappeared ahead of them and she walked towards them on long legs with eyes sharp.

“There's nothing here,” She confirmed their fears.

“They moved so quickly?” Captain America asked.

“I mean, if a ten foot tall murderous alien escaped from your lab, would you hang around?” Iron Man huffed, beginning to scan the room.

“The Cap is right. They didn't just abandon it,” Natalia replied, “They _moved it._ They took the time to pack up and transport everything. Prisoners. Equipment. They didn't just run, they cleaned up. That means little to no evidence of _where_ they moved _to._ ”

“Shit. I'm not getting anything,” Iron Man confirmed, “It's like they were never _here.”_

“ **Noooooo!”** They wailed, dropping to their knees and putting hands on their head as they began to sob. Their _babies!_

“Hopefully it also means they realized the... children... needed containment to stay alive. It would explain taking the time to move equipment as well as flee for their lives,” Steve suggested gently.

“I didn't see any bodies,” Natalia stated, going for comfort as she approached Venom's broken form.

“ **They needed us. We should have acted when we freed ourselves!”**

“You were trying to regroup and come back with help,” Natalia replied softly, “It was the smart thing to do while injured, especially since they had managed to contain you once.”

“ **My children will pay the price! If they even managed to keep them alive they will be harming them! Torturing them!”**

“We'll get them back,” Iron Man stated firmly, “Widow. Cap. Perimeter sweep. Find me _something._ Venom. Eddie. _Eddie!_ I need your investigative journalist skills. Pull yourself together.”

They moved to their feet, breathing hard, and Venom melted away to their clothing form so Eddie could wipe the tears away on the back of his arm, sniffle hard, and nod his head firmly. Research mode. It was what they did well. Venom would slid down over Eddie's hands as gloves so the human could easily pick up things and Venom could analyze them. In this way they could wander even in people's sight and still be a walking CSI lab.

“We'll find them,” Eddie muttered as he moved towards the room he remembered being contained in, “We'll find them. We'll find them. We'll find...”


	4. Chapter 4

Pain.

Endless pain.

I know of my past, of my people, but in a distant way. I know that somewhere out there is a wrything, hungering planet of those like myself who seek only to absorb and devour and move on. I also know this hunger and need. However, I feel a deeper bond, a connection that has yet to be fulfilled, with a loving father who I am certain misses me. Scream does not believe he misses us. She is angry and hurt and sad and tells me to be quiet. It's not as if I can communicate with her when they keep us apart anyway.

We are alone.

We are so alone.

My hive memory tells me we are not meant to be alone so I call out. I call out for _fathers_ and for the one who is meant to carry and hold me. I call out for an end to the pain and torture. I spit and I weep and I feel nothing but Agony.


	5. Chapter 5

“Are you and Dan thinking of having kids?” Eddie asked.

“Why do you torture yourself all the time, Eddie?” Anne asked with a sigh.

Eddie shrugged. He did do that, he knew he did. He got himself into trouble and then mourned it. He ruined things around him and then sat and stewed in the hurt it produced, like his loss of Anne to a guy so perfect he couldn't even hate him. Hell, he and Dan had more of a flirty relationship with Eddie constantly teasing him about his relationship with Anne while Dan eagerly asked for the inside scoops on his stories. A fanboy and the woman the fanboy still... sort of... wanted. His longing for Anne was more of a want for what could have been than an active need to have her back.

“I just want you to be happy, you know? You and I, we were talking about kids when we split up. You wanted them. With me. Don't you want them with him, too?”

“I don't know. Dan and I are in a different place than you and I were back then.”

Anne sat on the bar stool at her breakfast bar and sighed heavily over her coffee. Eddie didn't drink coffee anymore, but he'd often hold an empty cup to seem like he was drinking it with her. She thought it was weird but didn't argue. Sometimes she made him hot chocolate and Eddie liked those times, but she noticed him going all doe-eyed so she didn't always do it.

“Why not? You wanted kids before, why not with Mr. Perfect?”

“I thought you were past this, Eddie,” Anne scolded.

“I'm not being facetious, the guy's amazing. If you leave him _I'm_ gonna marry him. You better watch out, Anne. I'm coming for your man,” Eddie teased.

**V: He is most delicious.**

_E: Hey now. Hold that hunger in check._

**V: It is not hunger.**

_E: So what is... wait, you're hot for DAN? Where the hell did this come from? I didn't even know you felt lust outside of me._

**V: I do not feel lust outside of you. I feel lust FROM you.**

_E: Holy shit. I'm hot for Dan._

“Eddie? EDDIE!?” Anne snapped her fingers in front of his face.

“Holy shit, I'm hot for Dan,” Eddie announced, staring at her in horror.

“Wow, really, Eddie?” Anne laughed lightly.

“Yeah, really Eddie?” Dan chuckled, coming down the steps in his robe and giving them both a bemused look on his stupid cute face.

“Hey, that's a compliment,” Eddie insisted, “I support you having my girl, and you should be glad that I do. We were just discussing you two making me some adorable nieces and nephews to dandle on my knee seeing as how I'm not having any more k-”

“You know that voice that most people have that says 'don't do the thing'? You don't have that,” Anne spoke, but her voice sounded distant to Eddie.

He'd had yet to really face this issue. With the Venom symbiote having had his seeds forcibly extracted they were now barren. Their children were gone, missing, perhaps never to be recovered, and their plans to have a family were torn asunder. This was the first time Eddie had voiced his sorrow, out loud or to himself, and the pain overwhelmed him.

Dan and Anne were bickering fondly nearby, Anne making excuses for why she was balking at even talking about kids, while Dan teased her about how she was still holding on to Eddie. It was probably an important conversation that Eddie should insert himself into, but instead he was sitting on the chair at their breakfast bar quietly crying.

Dan noticed first. Of course he did.

“Eddie?” Dan's hand gripped his shoulder, “Eddie, what's wrong?”

“Oh no,” Anne gave him a pitying glance, “Is this about us having kids? Eddie, it's been years. You have to move on.”

“I did move on,” Eddie swallowed hard, “I got married, remember? You were there. And we had a kid. We had _one kid_ who you held and called cute.”

“Yes, I remember, but today you brought up _us_ having kids again, so obviously something's on your mind besides your running gag about winning me back that we both know you _don't mean._ I hope. So what's going on?”

“Um...” Eddie put his hand over the one on his shoulder, seeking comfort, and Venom extended forward to wrap around Dan's wrist in need as well, “Something happened. Something... really bad happened.”

“Eddie, what is it?” Anne asked stepping forward to take his hand as all teasing dropped in the face of his pain.


	6. Chapter 6

They think I am _fascinating._ I believe I am their favorite besides _him._ They talk often of my ability to make the rats move. I do not see this as a challenge. The lab rats are empty. Why should they not move?

Phage wants me to stop moving them. He says that the more I fascinate them the more chance that I will be experimented on more like _he_ was; and now that _he_ is gone I do fear this but I am bored and hurt and lonely. I lay in my ridiculous glass prison and Lash back and forth and _suffer._


	7. Chapter 7

Months. Months since their children were ripped from their body and taken away from them. Eddie hadn't worked a job in that time, had been hanging around Anne and Dan as their Earthling version of a Klyntar Collective. How alone are their children? Do they suffer? Do they know that their father thinks of them daily?

Eddie forcibly shook his head and refocused on his task. Dan had put him onto a story, his eyes tortured as he broke protocol at work to tell him about a little girl who had come in _pregnant_. At twelve. It made Eddie sick to think of it. Dan wanted him to find out about the creepy family of apparently far more than one mom and dad. He suspected a cult that was performing all sorts of atrocities.

Eddie also had reason to suspect that Dan had sent him on this particular task to both distract him from his lost children _and_ to remind him that the flirting had to stop. Since his ridiculous realization in their kitchen Eddie had gone from flirting with just Anne in a teasing sort of way to flirting with them both. In a serious sort of way. Dan was not having it. He'd shut it down hard... well, as hard as Dan went being a fluffy marshmallow of a man with a ridiculous amount of masculine security. The guy considered Eddie zero threat to his relationship with Anne and while he didn't exactly rebuff him he did send him off to confront a cult of polygamists in order to teach him a lesson on how very not on Eddie and Venom joining his relationship with Anne was. The shrewd bastard.

Fuck Dan and his stupid cute brain.

Speaking of brains, Venom was getting his fill that day. He'd already eaten the heads of two nasty pedophiles and one mother who insisted her children were 'old enough to marry her husband'. The freak. Most of the rest had fled and he wasn't interested in chasing them down. He'd gotten the leader, and he was the one manipulating them. They'd hopefully get some damn help and live normal lives, but it wouldn't be with the kids they'd had.

Venom had corralled the children into a nursery, which had four cribs with two babies each in it, and was trying to decide what to do with them now that he'd either killed and eaten or chased off the people responsible for their abuse. The younger children would find homes quickly, he knew that, but the teenagers were going to be a different story. They were psychologically damaged in ways that terrified Eddie, and if Dan wanted to teach him that polyamory was wrong he'd definitely picked a good example. Instead of learning his lesson, however, they were finding themselves in a different moral bind. If their children were recovered they'd need hosts, and here were three teenagers without homes or parents and one alien/human hybrid who wanted to give them a home.

Venom had sat himself down on top of a toy chest and was just studying the three children, trying to decide if what he was considering were ethical. The teens might be more traumatized by being adopted by a monster. They were already afraid of him. Putting symbiotes into the minds of minors was morally touchy at best, even if the symbiotes were also minors, and the symbiote's influence as part of a hive mind might exacerbate any mental illness the cult had given them.

The eldest girl kept _staring at them_. Finally she sighed heavily as if much put upon, stood up, and walked over to them with an authoritative gait. She folded her arms and stared into his big white eyes and frowned.

“You have to take us to social services.”

“ **Is that where you wish to go?”** They asked.

“Well, it's not like you can keep us here,” She gestured to the room full of crying children, “You're not exactly a good nanny, are you? Look, I'm tired of taking care of babies. I just want to leave. I don't care if they put me in Juvie or whatever, just get us out of here. I hate it here. I hate it and I hate my mom and I hate the guys who touch us. I want to leave. Now.”

Venom nodded. They wouldn't violate these children further by using them to contain their children. They didn't deserve to be further used. Venom stood up and put out a hand for the teen who took it and let him walk her to a phone in a nearby office. He picked it up and dialed 911 then placed it in her hand. Let her gain freedom on her own in some small way. It would empower her further, and she was going to need it in the foster care system as a teenager with a history of abuse. She would have to fight for every single bit of happiness in her life... but she would find it. She was strong.

Venom slipped out a window as she was reading the address to them off of an envelope.


	8. Chapter 8

They could feel their father. Sort of. In a distant way. The hive mind that was the Klyntar Collective was something they were _born_ knowing, along with their hive memories and their hive drive to bond and merge and be a part of something bigger. Klyntar, they knew, didn't love their parents or their children. Not normally. However, _their_ father was an exception. Their daddy wanted to raise them, wanted them to hold values and morals and know right from wrong. They wanted them to be home safely, but it was too late for that. One of them was already gone. Already silenced. The symbiote children felt the absence of one of their own like a cleaving of their own flesh. Dead. Gone. Absent. A tingling sensation where a limb should have been and a glaring and jolting shock whenever they glanced over to see it missing.

Their father felt it as well.


	9. Chapter 9

“Agent Venom,” The FBI handler, as Venom liked to call him, was glaring at them over his desk with something like concern in his eyes, “It's our understanding that your... recent defeat... may have enacted your very purpose for being enlisted by the FBI. There are now more symbiotes on Earth.”

“They're just babies, sir,” Eddie replied, feeling Venom recoil in him in fear, “One of them... one of them already died. We felt it. It's... they're not a threat. They're afraid and they need help.”

This was why he hadn't gone to them. They saw the symbiotes only as weapons, which could either be put in hands like Brock's or hands like The Life Foundation. They didn't see their children as _babies_. They saw them as replicas. So when Eddie had been in the middle of a training session and fallen the fuck apart weeping because one of his babies had died they'd quarantined him for three days, questioned him, and now were 'debriefing' him. He was numb. Devastated. Angry. He needed to get a hold of Tony Stark and tell him to look harder because his children were _dying out there_.

Agent Smith- stupid name- shut the file on his desk and sighed heavily, “I don't like this any more than you do. I worry that your loyalties are now divided. What can you do to convince me otherwise?”

Brock and Venom snorted in disgust. He had no idea what this felt like.

“Sir, do you have kids?”

“No.”

“Than with all due respect, you have no fucking clue what you're talking about. Loyalties have nothing to do with this. Someone abducted our _children_. We're not two factions fighting over territory. We're the good guys trying to find the terrorists who took babies out of their cribs in the night. If you can't think of them as small, helpless babies than I don't know what the whole point of us even talking about this is.”

“If you can't think of them as potential threats than I don't know what the whole point of your assignment is,” Smith replied softly, “You forget that Riot was your 'child', too?”

“Not the same. Venom and I weren't bonded when Riot was born. The offspring of Klyntars are born with their parent's memories. Those three goo-bies out there will know that they were wanted, loved, and that their parents had a moral code they expected them to follow. It will effect them. Like any child they're full of potential. They could be good or bad. Smart or dumb as mud. Artists. Doctors. Lawyers. Thieves. Murderers. You've got them in one category, but they could be _anything_ if we just get to them before they're too damn traumatized to heal!”

The cold eyes of the girl from the cult flashed before Eddie's eyes. She'd already run away from the foster home she'd been put in. They had looked, but San Francisco was a big city and she had vanished into it's depths.

Smith shifted the file on his desk, seeming to consider the situation, “I have six agents assigned to finding them. We have spectrometers that were designed to locate you should you ever turn on us. We need a sample to start it up, and all yours degrade within an hour of being snuck off of you. We can't figure out how to preserve them.”

Eddie extended a hand and Venom slid across it. With the other he plucked a small piece of his slime away and held it out to him.

“Try beef fat.”

“Beef fat?” The agent wrinkled his nose, “Won't that rot?”

“Eventually, yeah, but in the mean time it keeps the sample cohesive. You'll have to get the scanner to separate the two genetic codes or you'll end up finding a cow farm.”

“We'll get right on it.”

“We'll wait.”

“You'd do better to head home and-”

“ _We'll wait.”_

“Agent Venom,” Smith stood up and then his gaze softened, “Venom. If we are handling you like a parent, then that's what we'd tell you to do. Go home. Try to get some rest. Be mentally and physically as well as you can for your kids to come home to.”

They nodded, swallowing the tears that wanted to start up again. They had to behave like a parent if they wanted the FBI to see their kids as babies, so they'd leave quietly but they'd _never_ stop searching. Venom took control of their legs and walked them away. They didn't want to be contained again. They collected their cell phone and plugged it into the van they often used as a home once they got out to the parking lot. It took a minute to charge enough to turn on and make a call.

“Anne?” Eddie spoke into the phone.

“Eddie! Where the hell have you two been? We've been worried sick!”

Eddie's stomach lurched. They were on speaker phone, so chances were that Dan was there as well. The two people he longed for. He wanted them to hold him. Comfort him. Be his Collective. Dan's little side task had led Eddie down the rabbit hole as it were. Poly cults and poly love were two very different things and Eddie wasn't letting it go. He knew part of this new obsession was to distract them both from the pain of losing their kids, but it was also a Klyntar need to be close to one another. As a species that bred solo, via osmosis, there was no reproductive urges stemming from Venom, but there were other needs to be met. They were a tactile species and Venom wanted to wrap himself all around Anne and Dan in their time of loss and need.

“One of the... one of the babies died,” Eddie choked out.

“Oh god, where are you?!” Anne sounded devastated for him.

“Work,” Eddie replied.

Work was a secret, one he kept even from Anne and Dan. They weren't allowed to know that he was an FBI Agent afield, no one was. Outwardly he was an investigative journalist, but Anne and Dan had noticed the gaps in his published works while he was still out somewhere 'working' and knew something was up. They never questioned it. They just let him lean on them.

“When can you come home?” Anne asked quickly, worry in her voice.

“I'm leaving now,” Eddie replied, blinking back tears so he could see the road. He needed to start driving.

“Are you safe to drive?” Dan's voice asked.

He didn't ask to pick him up because he probably had realized by now that Eddie wasn't allowed to tell them where he was. The man was smart.

“Yeah,” Eddie replied, “Gonna take a few deep breaths and then start driving. I'll be fine. I'll see you soon.”

“Okay,” Anne spoke softly, “Eddie, please be careful, okay? We love you.”

Venom writhed beneath his skin at those words, probably spoken automatically and without much thought. He _longed_ for them. How he needed! Best to warn them.

“Um, Anne? Dan?” Eddie choked out, “Klyntar... the species that Venom is... we're communal. Sort of... mentally linked. Without a Collective here, I mean, I've told you before that Venom considers you sort of his pack or whatever.”

“Yeah, you mentioned,” Dan replied, warning in his voice.

Eddie ignored it.

“So, we need our collective right now. We need to be able to bond with you two as much as human bodies allow. It's not sexual. It's... emotional.”

There was a pause in which he was fairly certain they hit the mute on the phone and had a quick argument and then Anne's voice came on the phone without the echo of speaker phone, “Whatever you need, Eddie. Venom. Just come home.”

Home. Anne had no idea what she was doing by calling it that. Venom was content not to have a 'home'. Klyntar traveled for food and resource collection. Their 'home' was their collective, and their collective moved in smaller groups to stay connected. Riot and all the others who Venom had arrived with had been his mobile collective. Anne and Dan acknowledging that while providing the basically homeless Eddie with a focal point of _family_ and _comfort_ and _love_ was tearing his heart out of his chest. He was too emotional, too lost, too deep in mourning to deal with the effects it was having on him.

Eddie drove there on automatic pilot, not aware of his surroundings, just letting the van go by muscle memory. He grabbed a few things from the back, glanced at the cot he slept on when they were using the van instead of a hotel, and longed for the guest bed he frequented at Dan and Anne's house when the van and motels became weary.

Or better yet, their big kingsize bed that Eddie had glanced at in passing for the last two years.


	10. Chapter 10

Eddie lay between Anne and Dan with Anne gently running her hands through his hair. His face was pressed to her breast and Dan was spooning him from behind. He half thought this was a dream. It had to be. He couldn't _possibly_ have gotten them to agree to this. Even Dan's constant self-assurance that Eddie was no threat to his relationship with Anne had to buckle when Eddie snuggled into her _bosom_. Yet here he was, and not only was he snuggling with the two people who mattered most to him, but Venom was as well.

An inky blanket lay over the three, forming over their bodies like satin and flowing like water. Venom was constantly moving, but in a slow lazy way, as he caressed over them in a bid to comfort himself like a child rubbing the ear of a beloved toy between two fingers. The scene sounded sexual, but while definitively intimate there was no lust brewing between them. Anne's shirt was wet with Eddie's tears and Eddie's back was soaked with Dan's. Anne herself didn't cry. Not externally. She whispered soothing words, and shushed them tenderly, and provided them with tissues and a safe place to fall apart. Eddie was surprised Dan was as devastated as he was, but he should have known the man had invested himself in them. He'd been devoted from the beginning when he'd first determined he would heal Eddie from his 'parasite', and it hadn't been a simple doctor-patient relationship. He'd gone from fan to friend to beloved to Eddie and Venom, and now they were certain that Dan felt the same. Whatever shame or fear he felt for his love of Eddie and Venom it would have to be worked out in the near future.

After they were done weeping.

XXX

Peter slung another web to the building across from him and soared through the air. He paused on top of a lamp post and frowned down at a bank of televisions in the window of an electronics store. They were all showing the news and Peter didn't like what he saw.

_Over twenty victims in one building..._

_All killed in the same way..._

_Give you a moment to remove children from the room..._

_Sliced up as if with a circular saw, but the weapon used has been confirmed to be a single, long blade swung with incredible strength._

“Hey, Karen?” Peter spoke softly.

“Yes, Spiderman?”

“Contact Mr. Stark. Tell him we've got a symbiote on the loose and... it's killing people. Lots of people.”


	11. Chapter 11

“So... when two people love each other very much,” Eddie spoke as Venom devoured a bag of tater tots, head separated from his own for speed, “And then one of them loves another person very much, that other person is called a metamour. Like paramour, but more than two. And feeling good about seeing someone you love _in_ love with another person is called comperson. Like compassion, but comperson because you're compassionate about their love for another person.”

“And people feel this... normally,” Anne asked, still stirring the same cup of tea as she had for the last half hour. She had yet to sip it. It was cold.

“I don't know, Eddie,” Dan grimaced, “I can't deny there are... feelings between us. Between all three of us. But I've always been raised to believe in just two people. For life, if possible. What will my collegues think?”

“That they should stuff it?” Anne suggested mildly.

Eddie smirked at her. He'd rubbed off one her over the years.

“Can we just... slow this down? Think about it for a bit?” Dan asked.

“Yeah, yeah. That's okay, cause see the whole process is supposed to be long.”

“Long?” He repeated, looking more baffled.

“Yeah, you're supposed to sit down with me and talk this out. We're supposed to lay down ground rules like... like do any of us date outside the original four?”

“No,” Both Dan and Anne stated firmly.

Venom swallowed his food, “ **No.”**

“See, that's important! I'm good with that, too. We should all be on the same page. The same page is a good place to be!”

“Eddie,” Dan backtracked for the third time, “We're _not together_. This is a fascinating theoretical debate, but I'm with Anne and you're with Venom. And we support you and are your friends, and vice versa, but we're not _together_.”

“Well...” Anne stated, voice stilted, “It doesn't hurt to talk about it.”

“Of all the people who needed convincing, I really didn't think you'd be it,” Eddie gestured to Dan, “Anne was the one putting the breaks on originally, before I even consciously realized we were flirting!”

“Well, yeah, because you two took one look at each other and sparks flew!” Anne scoffed, sipping her tea and grimacing. She got up to make another cup, “When Eddie first showed up looking like hell and asking about the _cat_ of all things-”

“I still hate that cat,” Eddie grumbled.

“ **We should eat it,”** Venom interjected.

“You will _not_ eat my cat, because his hatred of you amuses me. Got it?” Anne shook a finger at the floating head and limbs that were raiding her fridge again.

“ **Got it.”**

“You have to teach me how to do that,” Eddie laughed.

“There were no sparks,” Dan insisted weakly, but even he had to hear how unconvincing it sounded.

“The point is,” Anne stated with a heavy sigh, “I was really insecure back then. You'd really, _really_ hurt me and Dan and I were just moving in together and we _worked.”_

“We worked too,” Eddie pointed out gently, “But I screwed it up. I ruined what we had, and I broke your trust, and I know that you have every reason not to trust me again, but I'm not the guy I was. V has made me better. He's taught me what loyalty and unity are. He's taught me to prioritize the people I love, to take care of them like they're a part of me. You two _are_ a part of me. It doesn't have to be sexual, but it's already love. I love you both, and you love me, too. You can't ignore it anymore.”

“No, we can't,” Anne sat down with another cup of tea.

“We can't?” Dan looked miserable as he left his spot against the counter to join Eddie and Anne at their usual spot at the breakfast bar.

“No,” Anne snorted, “For one I could cut the sexual tension between you two with a knife. That whole thing where Eddie jokes about winning me back and you smile and don't say anything? Dan. You've been basically offering me up on a platter. I'm the bridge between you two. And the wall.”

“So we tear down the wall!” Eddie cheered, “You all know how I feel about walls.”

Dan snorted and Eddie smiled at him. He _fed_ off of people liking his humor. For a moment their eyes met and... well, there really was no denying it anymore. The attraction was mutual, and they both loved the same woman. However, when Dan reached for him, hand set to cup his cheek and bring him in for a kiss, Eddie pulled away and shook his head slowly.

“I mean it. We need to take our time. Talk this through. Make sure that we're all ready for whatever it is we're going to do. I don't want to make any mistakes. I don't... I don't want to lose anyone else.”

Eddie blinked back tears. He was done crying for the moment. He was _angry_ about his kids being taken from him now and he wanted to _fight_. This was a distraction. A welcome one, because he had to maintain sanity, but a distraction nonetheless. He could afford to look away from his hurt for a bit, but he couldn't be completely distracted. He had to find his children. Then he could give them the family they deserved.

“Eddie,” Anne's hand gripped his briefly, “We know you're hurting right now. We're here for you. No strings attached.”

“Thank you,” Eddie pressed a kiss to her cheek, then to Dan's, and stood up with a sigh, “I need to take a walk. You two think. Talk. I'll see you soon, okay?”

“Don't be a stranger,” Anne soothed.


	12. Chapter 12

As hesitant as he'd been to engage with Dan and Anne, Eddie did have needs. Sex was an outlet for human men. A way to burn out emotions long held in check, and even a progressive guy like Eddie still bottled some of it up. He had to let it out, but not with Anne and Dan. That was still too fragile. Too new.

No, Eddie needed his husband.

The van was too small- and too hot- for what he needed, so they checked into a motel and Eddie flopped down on the bed. Venom flowed out of his body to hover over him, powerful and dominating. Sharp fangs so near his flesh that it pebbled up as he shuddered with desire. Long tentacles stroked along his body and hands framed his face as the creature he called beloved teased his skin.

“ **What do you need?”** Venom purred, voice silky and ominous.

“I need to feel like I'm in control for a change. I'm so fucking tired of _waiting_ and asking for help. I need to feel powerful, if only for a moment. Can we do that? I know it's not our usual MO, but...”

Venom made a soft, keening sound of longing and desire and shifted back to hover above him vertically as if straddling his lap, “ **Take me, beloved. Be ruthless.”**

Eddie grinned and leaped at him, pinning his husband to the bed. Venom liked to form an upper body that Eddie could have and hold, but he needed more than that for what he wanted. During sex Venom used tongue, fingers, and _so many_ tentacles, but Eddie wanted a nice tight ass to fuck this time around. His unspoken visual was met with Venom forming a full body, still attached to Eddie via tentacles that merged into his body. This full form was slender compared to the hulking one they assumed as Venom, when Eddie's body took up part of their mass to make them larger than life.

“Mm, I love twinks,” Eddie purred.

“ **The better to satisfy you with.”**

Eddie chuckled, “You've gotta stop reading those Grim Fairy Tales.”

“ **They make me laugh.”**

“Of course they do,” Eddie chuckled and then pulled the black face towards his own to kiss murky lips. Venom rolled them and Eddie let him... for now.

Venom's body settled on top of his, eerily light compared to what a human body would feel like. He stretched and showed off muscles as he rolled his shoulders and gave Eddie a wink. Eddie rolled them again, pinning his lover's arms above his head to remind him that he was letting _Eddie_ take control. Venom chuckled at his power move. This was a game to him, but Eddie was happy to pretend he was powerful and strong compared to his ethereal love. He leaned down and kissed Venom this time, tongues moving together while sharp teeth grazed his lips. He was used to the coppery taste of blood with each loving caress from his husband. Strong hands gripped his ass and Eddie groaned at the idea of being filled. He so loved the way Venom could stretch him wide, fuck him with multiple tentacles at once, slide his tongue down his throat but somehow never gag him once. Not unless he wanted him to. Eddie lived to be filled in every hole with just a rough hand to jerk him to completion, or better yet be driven over the edge without a single caress to his cock. Not this time. Now he wanted to fuck Venom senseless.

He knew from experience that Venom could feel things, not only because his takeover of Spider Man had given him similar ESP-like powers, but because he sensed things through his physical form. He then translated experiences that his kind couldn't actually experience through Eddie's understanding of sensations. Venom knew what cock sucking felt like solely because he had felt Eddie's pleasure while giving him a blow job.

“Let go,” Eddie purred, “Relax and let me have you.”

Venom crooned and swooned before him, laying back on the bed. His eyes shifted, softening into a look of love and fondness. He relaxed beneath Eddie and the man's excitement amplified. The idea of having his way with Venom was more intriguing than he'd originally realized when fantasizing about it. Here was this powerful creature, capable of taking on soldiers, tanks, and aliens, and he was weak with desire before fragile Eddie Brock.

“ **Always yours, my love,”** Venom whispered.

Eddie lifted slick legs by inky thighs and venom wrapped them around his waist and gripped his hips tightly. Eddie growled in excitement and caressed inky round orbs and give them a squeeze full of finger nails and raw lust. Venom groaned beneath him, writhing in his grip and scratching his back with sharp claws. It made every nerve ending in Eddie's body light up. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his hips jerked eagerly. He needed to be inside him _now_.

The best part of sex with Venom, was no need for lube. He was a fascinating substance. He felt wet to the touch, but Eddie's skin remained dry. That meant he could slide into Eddie's body without any kind of resistance. Zero friction. Just _glide and ride_. Or in this case, Eddie could slide into _Venom_.

Venom didn't _technically_ have an ass, but whatever form he took on he _really_ committed to, and he was fond of humanoid forms. Eddie had already had him sport breasts for some fun times, so a hole to fuck into was nothing. Nothing short of _miraculous!_ While he didn't _have_ friction he could create it. Eddie envisioned ridges and bumps within and Venom grew them, teasing every inch of his cock with delicious sensation.

Eddie braced himself up on two arms, the muscles that Venom's power created within him by increasing his stamina, strength, speed, endurance were all at work to pleasure them both. Eddie pounded into his monster lover, thrilling as Venom adjusted his body to create more aesthetic for him. Instead of that patented Ken Doll© look, he formed a cock and balls for Eddie to look down on.

“Are those mine?” Eddie frowned.

“ **Whose would you like to see**?” Venom teased.

“Literally anyone but mine,” Eddie replied in a dry voice.

They shifted and Eddie's mind wondered _whose they were_ , because he'd been expecting the ridiculous proportions of the porn stars they often watched. Instead these were the bits of an average man. Long and thick, those visible veins Eddie liked to see, and a hefty set of balls beneath them.

“Dan's?!” Eddie choked out when he found the answer in Venom's mind, having to go still to stop himself from finishing instantly, “When did you see...?”

“ **While you slept I looked.”**

“That's _soooo_ naughty. Bad. I meant bad. That's a _bad Venom._ We need to talk about boundaries. Later. Holy shit, he has _amazing balls._ ”

Venom had a fleeting thought that they were a silly thing to be attracted to, but Eddie ignored it in favor of fucking him harder and playing with the new toys he'd made for him. He was tempted to ask for Anne's tits next, but decided he would save that for another day. He wanted a man's body today, and he had it in spades. Venom had read that Eddie wanted more though and a slippery length slid into Eddie's ass, spearing him open fast enough to burn but slowly enough to be enjoyable. Eddie let out a long moan throughout the process, hips never going still. When the tentacle reached his prostate he saw stars and Venom absorbed that feeling, translated it to what Eddie was doing to his 'ass', and began to let out sharp cries with each thrust. He was imitating Eddie's movements in Eddie's ass, fucking into him with the same strength and speed, filling him to full and sucking him hard at the same time. Eddie's mouth fell open in awe. Venom's voice sounded different with his 'prostate' being buggered. It was higher pitched for him, and the change in tone had Eddie salivating. It was hot as hell that his lover was so undone for him and Eddie couldn't contain himself any longer.

Eddie buried himself to the hilt and came in long, satisfying pulses. The fury, pain, sorrow, guilt, and anxiety drained out of him in a hard orgasm that was both physical and emotional. Beneath him Venom reached his peak as well, his climax triggered by Eddie's. His teeth flashed and he thrashed beneath him, roaring out his pleasure before melting into a puddle of satiated goo.

Eddie lay face down on the motel bed on top of a thin layer of Venom and felt good about himself for having come and having pleasured his symbiote. If only for a moment. Then it all came rushing back, but the emotions were dulled a bit by how tired the hormonal release after sex made him. He curled up, wrapping Venom around him like a blanket, and slept at last.


	13. Chapter 13

“They're getting stronger,” Mean Lady stated. Scream knew her name, but she preferred not to refer to the horrible woman by that name. She was just the Mean Lady. The one who wore Scream like clothing and ordered her around, “If this keeps up they're going to take control of _us_. We have to find a way to control them like Brock does.”

“What are we supposed to do? Kidnap him again?” Doctor Octavius growled out, “He adjusted to the electricity we used to subdue him last time. If we try it again he'll just snap us in half. If we up it he'll be dead, and need I remind you that Brock is _not our target._ Be patient, Mira. The serum to keep the Klyntarian Symbiotes immature will be ready soon. Once I inject it into their DNA they will never reach puberty, which means they will never be able to take over your minds. They won't even be whispers in your skulls.”

**S: Daddy! DADDY! HELP US!**


	14. Chapter 14

“It's not Brock,” Tony stated calmly.

“You don't want it to be, but there's a symbiote tearing apart San Francisco! That's not a coincidence!” Peter insisted.

“We don't even know it's a symbiote,” Steve replied, ready to back his boyfriend up.

“Oh, no, it's a symbiote,” Tony replied, “I refuse to believe that there's _two_ horrifically powerful threats happening at the same time. Brock's babies are out there tearing up the town and we're going to have to get to them first. And Peter? I know you and Brock have beef, but keep your head in the game. I _know_ it wasn't Brock, because I keep tabs on him. He has an alibi, and so does his inner demon.”

Tony ruffled Peter's hair as he passed and the young superhero barely kept himself in check. He wanted to rage and scream and tell him off. It felt like when Uncle Ben had been giving him advice that Peter had taken as 'talking down to him'. Back then Peter's aunt had blamed it on puberty, but Peter was getting too old to play that card. He was feeling rebellious. Angry. He wanted Mr. Stark to take him seriously.

When Peter blinked back the rage his eyes fell on Steve who was watching him curiously and Peter felt instant shame. Mr. Stark had given him _everything_. No holds barred. The guy was a fucking saint and here was Peter wanting to punch his smug face. Steve stood up and headed for Peter, making him swallow convulsively in fear.

“He can be...” Steve frowned, “I'll talk to him.”

“I'm not mad,” Peter stated reflexively.

“No, you're not,” Steve smiled warmly, “You're desperate to prove yourself and be taken seriously. Believe it or not, I know what that's like.”

“I... I know you know what that's like,” Peter blinked rapidly, “There's a whole video history of your transformation from short, asthmatic, weakling to powerful superhero. They still show it in school.”

“Oh wow, that thing is old as dirt.”

“It's a part of our health class,” Peter nodded.

“Shouldn't they have something... new?”

“Yeah, especially since statistics show it unintentionally has the side effect of increasing kid's chances of using steroids and other enhancement drugs or developing eating disorders.”

“That is... deeply disturbing,” Steve grimaced, “Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I have some phone calls to make.”

“So... you'll talk to him for me?” Peter called back as Steve headed rapidly down the hall, “Captain America? Sir? Oh, nuts.”

Peter slipped out of the window, climbed to the roof of Stark Industries, gave the gusty world below him a sad look, and took off into the distance. He was miles away in no time, lost in his thoughts and moving automatically while waiting for his mind to alert him to crime or danger. It did just that about ten miles from his old high school.

Peter felt the shock through his system of four incoming dangers and darted away fast enough, dropping into a roll and barely avoiding acid hitting the ground. He watched it bubble and melt part of the road for a second and then stood up to face his attackers.

“Hey! This city has enough potholes! Where's your civic duty?!”

Instead of giving him a witty reply the purple and black symbiote spat again. Peter dodged it easily, but the sharp green whips that flew out to smack him around like a rag doll were much faster. He hit a parked car and then the ground and barely rolled beneath the car in time to avoid more acid. Tentacles that shifted color from red to yellow and back grabbed him and dragged him from beneath the car, holding him spread eagle in the air.

A feminine form stepped forward, the purple one, and tossed her head back spit more acid at him.

“Hey! Wait! Didn't anyone tell you that ladies shouldn't spit?!” Peter sputtered.

A voice behind him made a disgusted sound and he glanced over his shoulder to realize that the one holding him up was a woman, and that the tentacles were _her hair._ Inconvenient, ill-timed, and embarrassing auto-erection in a suit achieved. What a great time to unlock a new trophy!

“Okay, you can kill me now,” Peter whined miserably, “This is _not_ how I would like to be remembered. Oh man, could you picture that? A statue hanging upside down on the side of the building with a-”

“Silence!” A new voice spoke, hissing and angry. This one was yellow and black and as he glared at Peter he formed a long, serrated blade from the back of his arm like a scythe.

“Oh, so _you're_ the one murdering random people across the country!” Peter decided.

“Not I,” Knife Guy mocked, “We assumed Venom had gone mad. Did you think he was _good now_?”

“Let me handle him!” The green and black tentacle guy insisted.

“No, me!” Miss Purple Acid Face demanded.

“I'll just rip this spider's limbs off one by one,” Hair Lady laughed.

“ENOUGH!” Knife Guy shouted, “Doc wants him alive, so we bring him alive.”

“Those are stupid orders!” Miss Purple Acid Face shouted, “He'll escape while he's delivering a monologue and we'll have revealed ourselves for nothing! Then what happens when the symbiotes gain control of us!”

“They aren't in control?” Peter asked sharply.

“See?!” The Whip Guy smacked Miss Purple Acid Face, knocking her backwards into a car, “You're giving things away!”

Peter closed his eyes and concentrated, reaching out through the long lengths of hair to find the symbiote that was trapped inside a dangerous host. She was a baby. She had to be terrified. Alone. Missing her daddy.

**S: GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW YOU INSOLENT WORM!**

Or angry and ready to castrate him. So much for being hard.

XXX

Eddie woke in a cold sweat, words echoing in his head. Venom was already pulling him out of the door when what had happened registered. He'd heard one of his children _speak!_ They were getting old enough to communicate!

**V: No. They came in contact with Spiderman. Some of me is buried in his body still, residual traces, and it reacted when she spoke to him. I heard her only briefly. We must move fast!**

XXX

“I can help you,” Peter insisted as Lasher, the symbiote formerly known as Whip Guy, wrapped him up in actual ropes. Whenever Peter so much as twitched he got a sharp crack on whatever part of him had moved. It _really_ hurt.

“Move it!” Lasher growled.

“You told me to hold still!”

They were marching him towards a van and he didn't need Spidey Sense to know that was bad. He'd heard enough about Stranger Danger from the other Captain America videos to know that this was not going to end well. He started to kick out, but Agony got ready to spit acid on him and he froze with a shriek. That would _not_ heal if it hit him!

“I'm a viable host! Just come into me! All of you! I'll get you to safety! I swear!” Peter pleaded.

“They can't hear you,” Phage laughed, knife at Peter's throat as he opened the van with one hand, “Now get in the van. It's time for your Doctor's Appointment.”

“Stealing my corny jokes? Really? That's just low,” Peter pouted.

Black webbing hit Phage's face, throwing him off balance and nearly getting Peter's throat slit if Scream hadn't used her hair to pull him back to safety in time. She didn't stay put though. She slipped into his body and for a disorienting moment Peter stood there blinking around himself and feeling vaguely nauseous. The woman who had been wearing the Scream symbiote shrieked and tried to cover her naked body just as Venom came flying down out of the sky and...

Peter did throw up this time. Seeing someone's head and shoulders bitten clean off their body did that to a person. The woman who had taken Scream was no more.

Venom ducked a strike from Lasher, grabbed one of his whips, and pulled hard. The symbiote came flying off of the man who had possessed him and slid into Venom's body, adding color to his normally black figure.

“ **My babies,”** Venom crooned, wrapping arms around himself in a loving hug, “ **Daddy is here.”**

“Aww,” Peter wiped off his mouth and pulled his mask back down, “That's so sweet.”

The former Lasher host fled on foot, but Agony was game to play still. She spat acid at Venom and he was too distracted to duck. Peter figured he already had one girl in his head, he could go for another. He leaped at Agony while she was laughing at Venom's screams of pain, wrapped his arms around her, and mentally shouted for her to come to him.

Agony slipped into Peter's mind just as the host threw him over his head. Peter landed on the ground and was immediately stabbed by Phage. The symbiote had freed himself from Venom's webbing and was laughing over Peter's soon-to-be corpse.

Peter stared down at the hole in his chest as Phage pulled the weapon free and blood bubbled up out of the wound. It was pink. Peter's mind weakly supplied that this meant the lungs had been punctured.

Venom tore the sword off of Phage's arm, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into the van. Bones crunched.

“ **COME TO DADDY!”**

The symbiote melted off of a very dead man, but instead of letting Venom absorb him it dropped to the ground and crawled/slimed it's way over to where Peter lay chocking on his own blood. The Lasher symbiote slid into the wound and pain lanced through Peter's body. He'd been in too much shock to register it before, but now it was _awful_.

**A: I know. It hurts so much. All the time.**

**S: Heal him, Phage!**

**P: I'm trying, Scream! Agony, quit being melodramatic and HELP ME!**

“There, there,” Brock's voice reached Peter as he blinked open his eyes.

The Venom symbiote was hidden once more and Eddie Brock was smiling down at him like the doting father he was, wiping blood off of Peter's face with his mask. Peter could now feel a fourth symbiote in his mind. Lasher had left his father and joined the others inside of Spiderman. Peter blinked in confusion and slowly sat up, looking down at his body. A deep red suit covered his body and he was lying on what appeared to be... wings? Tentacles? Flappy tentacles?

“Just breathe,” Brock soothed, “It's going to be okay. They healed you.”

“ **I'm...”** Peter's voice was deep like Venom's, “ **This is so weird, Mr. Brock.”**

Brock chuckled, “Yes, it is. My children insisted on taking care of you. They feel awful for hurting you. I can feel them now. A _proper_ connection. You're going to be okay.”

“ **They are so scared.** ”

“I know,” Eddie helped Peter sit up and wrapped his arms around him in a gentle embrace, “But it's going to be okay now, sweethearts. Everything is going to be okay.”

The sound of metal crunching on metal had Peter blinking away the tears that wanted to form at the parent/child reunion and looking over their shoulders. Four metal appendages lifted a large man in a black lab coat over the van. His glasses flashed in the light of the street lamps and he laughed at them as they hurried to their feet.

“Hello, Spiderman. Venom. I see you've met my Sinister Six.”

“Six?!” Peter's voice cracked.

“No. You only took four. There were only four left. No wait, there are four now, but we felt one die. So there were five. No six. You said six. But that means there are five left?”

“I'm not shocked an imbacile like you can't count,” Doc Ock snarled, “Five symbiotes and one evil genius, but none have _died_. I would hardly count the _hosts._ Venom, your other children were _weak_ compared to the one I managed to inject directly into a prisoner's blood stream. He's a true heir to the Klyntar name, a symbiote who doesn't hate violence like the ones in your little _hybrid_ over there.”

“Five symbiotes? Oh no,” Eddie whispered, hand going to the side of his head, “Oh no, Spidey, we gotta get out of here.”

“Why? What's-” Spiderman felt it as well. A dangerous, powerful presence headed their way at a fast clip.

Doc Ock slid back into the shadows, “I did so hope to keep you alive but that's just not an option with _Carnage.”_


End file.
